Roche to buy medical scanning company

Roche is to buy California-based medical scanning company BioImagene for $100m, strengthening its position in tissue-based cancer diagnostics

Swiss drugmaker Roche is buying California-based, medical scanning company BioImagene for $100m, adding another bolt-on acquisition to strengthen its dominant position in tissue-based cancer diagnostics.

Diagnostics is gaining more importance in cancer treatment, which is being increasingly dovetailed to the genetic profile of patients. Roche is the world's largest maker of cancer drugs.

Roche says it expects to complete the purchase of privately held BioImagene in the coming weeks.

"As part of the personalised healthcare approach, pathologists are increasingly involved in generating information with high impact on treatment decisions," Daniel O'Day, chief operating officer at Roche Diagnostics said in a statement.

BioImagene's products create high-resolution, whole-slide digital images from glass microscope slides. The privately held group also provides the software to view, analyse and manage tissue images using a computer.

BioImagene differentiates itself by being the only end to end workflow management company with a suite of leading edge products for acquisition through image analysis, to decision support to report.

"We view the bolt-on acquisition as a good complement to the existing offering in tissues diagnostics, which is becoming increasingly important and crucial for personalised therapy options," said Kepler Capital Markets analyst Martin Voegtli.